Q Street Smarts received a couple letters recently from readers who wanted to remain anonymous but had very good questions they sought answers for. One asked about bike racks that cover rear license plates. The other inquired about ways to handle rogue drivers while crossing the street by foot with babies in tow.

Here's a snippet of the bike rack question: "I have lately seen a number of the racks with and without bicycles attached that block the rear plates of the vehicles they are attached to. Now, I do not know if there is a law regarding this but it seems that if the license plate is blocked it is unable to be seen by police, witnesses, etc. Now, I know from experience of not having a front license plate that it is a fix-it violation but wouldn't you think that blocking view of rear plates would also be a violation? What if this vehicle were involved in a hit-and-run or some other criminal activity and unable to be identified? What does the CHP have to say and why do we see so many of these vehicles on the road? Thank you for your very informative column."

A Officer Bradley Sadek of the CHP says having bike racks that block the license plate is indeed against the law and a citable offense that the officers at the Aptos branch do write tickets for.

Sadek cited California Vehicle Code section 5201(c), which states that, "A casing, shield, frame, border, product, or other device that obstructs or impairs the reading or recognition of a license plate by an electronic device operated by state or local law enforcement, an electronic device operated in connection with a toll road, high-occupancy toll lane, toll bridge, or other toll facility, or a remote emission sensing device, as specified in Sections 44081 and 44081.6 of the Health and Safety Code, shall not be installed on, or affixed to, a vehicle."

"This section is very broad," Sadek said. "It can include anything from a tinted license plate cover to a bike rack to a trailer ball hitch. If it obstructs visual identification of a vehicle it will also obstruct electronic identification."

For drivers who have any kind of rack that blocks the rear or front license plate, remove the plate from its designated area and display it proudly in the corresponding window so that it may be easily seen.

Q Now, in regard to pedestrians trying to cross the road when a dangerous driver is approaching. Here's some of that letter, "My husband and I were walking to the gym to go to a spin class, pushing our twin boys in a jogger stroller. We typically walk down 17th Avenue and cross the street at Harper, where there is a crosswalk, to get to Toadal Fitness. We of course looked both ways and determined that it was safe to cross. There were no cars approaching southbound and one car was pretty far away northbound.

"We were crossing 17th and had gotten halfway across when we both noticed that the car going northbound on 17th, a black PT Cruiser, was coming at us rather quickly — the driver was not slowing down at all. My husband, who was pushing the stroller, slowed and tried to communicate with the driver, saying, 'Hey! Slow down, stop, we're crossing!'

"The driver actually sped up! She swerved slightly and just continued driving, missing my husband by inches. Who does that? What should we have done? By the time I thought to try and get her license plate number, she was too far down the road for me to see it."

A In the joust between car and pedestrian, the car will always win. Never put yourself in danger like that. Instead, continue to cross the street and either try to remember the vehicle license plate or use your cellphone's video or camera capabilities to capture the plate or incident.